Ever since I can remember, I always wanted to be able to throw knives and tomahawks. I remember Fess Parker splitting a pine trunk with a tomahawk in the opening credits for “Daniel Boone” back in the 60’s…
And much more recently, Jason Statham throwing knives in “The Expendables.”
However, there was no progress on that front until my youngest brother showed up at our annual camphouse get-together with a set of throwing knives. He had very little faith in my abilities, as you can see from the target he built:
I persevered that entire week yet saw very little progress. On returning home, I decided to take desperate measures and seek instruction on the internet.
This guy, Adam Celadin, helped me understand the theory involved:
Thus encouraged, I bought a set of throwing knives.
(note: this is an Amazon affiliate link, which means that if you click the link and buy the associated product, Amazon may pay me a fee–your cost is unaffected)
These things worked great for the “no spin” technique I was learning. I eventually managed to destroy the paracord handles and replaced them with cloth medical tape, but the knives themselves held up well.
Unfortunately, the piece of plywood I used as a target eventually started to wear through, and here in the desert we suffer from a shortage of tree stumps or log sections to use as targets. Instead, I searched the internet for solutions and found this:
I promptly set about building my own. Given the looseness of my aim I decided to go with a large 30” x 31” design, not stopping to think how heavy it would be (answer–damned heavy!).
I made the frame from two 28″ and two 30″ lengths of 2×4. The twelve dozen target blocks were 4” lengths of 2×4. I put the frame together with wood screws, then filled it in with the target blocks, using a rubber mallet to persuade each row into place.
(not to insult anyone’s intelligence, but you’ll experience less frustration when you design your own target if you recall that 2×4 inch lumber actually measures about 1.5 x 3.5 inches)
I backed the target with a piece of plywood, then anchored each target block to the plywood backing with its own wood screw.
Finally, I installed carrying handles and spray-painted a target face with stencils.
The eyes of the skull ended up slightly off-center, but I decided that it just made it look more villainous: something you’d feel good about throwing knives at.
Then out to the backyard to try my hand.
Make sure to put your target against a safe backstop and start at fairly close range. I like 6-8 feet: close enough to hit somewhere on the target, but far enough that you can dodge the inevitable ricochets!
After MUCH practice I got to the point where I wanted a smaller target, so I spray-painted bullseyes into each target quadrant.
A year later I was browsing the internet when I found these tomahawks, made by the same company as my knives:
They were slightly smaller than I’d imagined, but were easier to stick into the target than the knives—lesson learned: I should’ve started with the tomahawks and then moved on to knives as my technique improved. Again, I ended up damaging the paracord handles and replacing them with cloth medical tape–which by now I preferred to the original paracord, anyway.
I eventually made a few more targets for friends and family using an assortment of stencils for the paint. Note that here I used 4×4 target blocks, since I had some left over from other projects and figured they’d last longer than my 2×4 blocks.
Throwing knives and tomahawks is a fun, if offbeat activity: a friend of mine set up a target in his backyard for a party he hosted. Obviously, close supervision was required…